


The Strangers

by bluebellsandcocklesshells



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, With A Twist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-04
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-06-06 08:52:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6747286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluebellsandcocklesshells/pseuds/bluebellsandcocklesshells





	1. The Bookkeeper

“Excuse me, sir?” Castiel opined in his most imperious voice.  “Please don’t disturb the books.”

The dark towhead looked up with a miffed expression.  “I’m sorry, _sir_.  Maybe if a responsible employee filed them correctly, I wouldn’t have to.”

Castiel stalked slowly down the corridor of towering bookshelves.  “You have a problem with my filing system?”

“It’s madness.  Orwell is with Harper Lee, Heinlein with Vonnegut—Joyce with Fitzgerald—is that Jack London with Herman Melville?”

“It’s organized by theme.”

“Unlike something logical, like alphabetization or era—”  He cut off and turned a dry, critical look on the bookkeeper.  “Really.  Tolkien with _Mein Kampf_?”

“They’re very similar thematically.  Now stop getting your greasy paws all over the books.”

Castiel swatted at the greased-covered fingers resting on the spine of an Amy Tan novel.

“How about I put my greasy paws on _you_ then?”

Castiel gasped as he was grabbed roughly by the hips and pushed up against a bookshelf.  A few books were jostled into falling to the floor.

“Dean!  Don’t…mmm…”

Castiel wrapped his arms around Dean’s neck and kissed him back.  His boyfriend’s engine grease stained hands traveled down the back of his clean white shirt, onto his khakis, and then cupped his ass.  Castiel hopped up and let Dean hold him, pressing him even harder against the shelf which swayed dangerously.

“Novak!”

Dean and Castiel sprang apart.  Castiel wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and Dean turned to face the windows, undoubtedly to hide his erection.  Castiel’s own was mostly hidden by the green apron of his uniform.

“Quit humping your boyfriend and get back to work.  If I’m going to pay someone to get down and dirty, it will be in the privacy of my own home thank you very much.”

“Sorry, Mr. Adler.”

The man harrumphed and passed out of sight at the end of the corridor.  Castiel bit his lip, trying to feel guilty, but mostly just feeling amused.  He turned to face Dean who was already stifling laughter.

“You are so going to get me fired," Castiel complained.

“Next time, come see me.”

“Yeah, because all we need is for Mr. Singer to catch us making out on a Corolla with a busted radiator…carburetor.”

Dean chuckled and stepped close to wrap his arms around Castiel’s waist.  “You’re so cute when you pretend like you know car stuff.”

He kissed the tip of Castiel’s nose and Castiel grumbled and belatedly dodged it.

“Shush.  I have books to put back in order.”

“Order,” Dean snorted, but released him.  “Have you ever considered that this store hardly ever sells anything because nobody can _find_ anything?”

“I have not,” Castiel stated superciliously and bent over to retrieve copies of _The Grapes of Wrath_ and _A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings_.

Predictably, Dean gave him a friendly and inappropriately placed slap on the ass.

“I get off at 5:00,” Dean said, backing up slowly.

Castiel stood up and started putting the books back on the shelves, not looking at Dean as he said, “You may leave work at 5:00, but you’re not _getting off_ until 5:05.”

Dean hummed in agonized anticipation.  “See you then, angel.”

Castiel waited until he heard the bell on the door jangle before he turned his head to watch Dean jog across the street and around the corner to Singer’s Autoshop.  Mr. Adler’s head popped around the end of the bookcase.

“Is he gone?” the man asked.

“Yes,” Castiel replied.

“That was a close one, Castiel.”

“I know.”  He swiped a hand over the top of a book that had a dust jacket advertising it as _Jane Eyre_.  Under his fingertips he could feel the warm vibration of fire magic.  “He almost set the whole store on fire,” Castiel said with an amused half-smirk.

“How many times do I have to tell you?  No sex around the books!  They’re quite volatile.”

“I don’t think it’s the sex they’re responding to.  I think it’s Dean.”

Mr. Adler snorted.  “That boy doesn’t have one drop of magical blood in his body.”

“There’s more than one kind of magic, Uncle,” he replied with a wink.

The man blinked, and then shuddered as he turned away.  “I never took you for corny, boy.  Horny, sure, but corny?”

Castiel smiled at his uncle’s retreating back.  “I promise I’ll be more careful in the future.”

“See that you are.  Can you imagine the shitstorm that would happen if _his_ kind found out there’s still magic in the world?”

Castiel looked out the storefront window, book in hand forgotten, mind wandering with possibilities.

What _would_ happen if Dean knew?  Castiel repressed a laugh and returned to his task.  They would set more than just a bookstore on fire.


	2. The Mechanic

“Here comes that idgit boyfriend of yours.  If you really loved him you’d make him get rid of that POS Continental.”

Dean grinned and wiped his hands off on a rag.  “It’s because I really love him that I let him keep his POS Continental.”

Bobby harrumphed and pointed a clipboard at him.  “You’re still on the clock, so no quick breaks that turn into two hour lunch-slash-nookie sessions in the backroom.”

“Dean made a face.  “Nookie?  No one calls it that anymore.”

“No making whoopie, then.”

“That’s even worse!” Dean groaned.

“And whatever you do, don’t let him get near the you-know-what.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Dean waved him off and stepped out of the garage and into the small parking lot in front of Singer’s Autoshop.

Castiel was parking his boat and blocking in two Hyundais and a Subaru, but that’s what those people got for not buying American.  His boyfriend slid out of the car, still wearing his green apron from the bookshop he worked at around the corner.

“You’re early,” Dean said with a smile, pulling him in for a tight hug.

Castiel grunted on his inhale as Dean squeezed him a little too tightly.  “God, Dean, I feel like you’re going to set me ablaze whenever we’re together.”

Den laughed and slid his arms down Castiel’s back until he could grip his hips and push him roughly against the side of the Continental.

“In a good way, I hope.”

“Yeah…” Castiel trailed off and let Dean kiss him.

Castiel wasn’t kidding—the heat between them was so different from Dean’s past experiences.  It had always been like electricity or static with the others.  With Cas—it was fire.  A warm little spark that glowed in his heart all the time and the barest touch of Castiel’s fingertips to his skin could ignite into an ardent conflagration that promised to consume him whole—burn him up into ash.  But he wasn’t afraid of it.  He craved it.  Which was a little frightening in and of itself.

“Dean,” Castiel’s weak voice cut through the roaring flames just enough for him to gather the shreds of his control and pull back.  He kept his hands on Cas’ waist and his lips against Cas’ lips—but he let them breathe.

“I can’t—“  Dean swallowed, suddenly thirsty.  “I can’t go out tonight.”

Cas nodded, his nose bumping Dean’s lightly.  “S’okay.  Came to tell you the same thing.”

Dean frowned.  “Why?”

Castiel laughed and pulled back enough for them to not look like two crazed psychopath nymphos in a public parking lot.

“What does it matter?  You can’t go out anyway.”

Dean shrugged.  “It doesn’t.”  Except that he was crazy and didn’t like other people spending time with Cas if he couldn’t.

“Relax, big boy.  It’s family stuff.  Nothing to be jealous about.”

“M’not jealous,” Dean pouted.

“I know,” Cas said patronizingly and patted his cheek.  “Anyway, it’s just tonight.  I’ll see you tomorrow.  Unless…after I’m done I can come over…?”  His voice lilted up hopefully.

Dean sighed.  “I wish I could say yes, but my thing could take awhile.  Family stuff.”

“Gotcha.”  Castiel cocked his head slightly.  “Can you imagine the day when ‘family stuff’ means each other?”

Dean let out a small laugh and blushed as he looked down.  “You proposing?”

“No…just thinking…what it would be like to bring you to one of my family events.”

Dean did the same, trying to imagine Cas armed to the teeth and covered in blood.  “No…I don’t want that…” he murmured.  “My family stuff…we’ll need to make our own family.”

“I’d like that…but…”

“Not now.”

Castiel nodded.  “Not now.  But…perhaps…”

He trailed off, seemingly unable to figure out when “then” would be.  Dean couldn’t help him.  He didn’t know either.

“Anyway,” Cas said, breaking the slightly dreary spell.  “That’s all I came to tell you.”

“You could’ve called,” Bobby said gruffly as he passed by them to give the keys to one of the blocked in cars to the owner.

“I could’ve,” Cas agreed.  “But then, I couldn’t do this.”  He leaned forward and kissed Dean again, and Dean moved his hands from Cas’ waist to his face to hold him close and not let him pull away.

When at last Castiel managed to disentangle himself from Dean, the owner of the blue Hyundai had been trying unsuccessfully to pull forward and back up twenty times in order to fit his car through the small gap left by the Continental.

“See you tomorrow,” Castiel said with a final kiss and got into his car.

Dean waved at him as he drove away, and then he walked back into the garage.  Bobby was eyeing him, but didn’t say anything.  He didn’t have to though; Bobby was just that good.

“No, I haven’t told Mom and Dad I’m dating a non-Hunter.  No, I don’t plan on doing it any time soon.  No, I don’t plan on breaking up with Cas.”

Bobby made a noncommittal grunt and continued looking over the clipboard in his hand.

“You just have to be aware of how these things end.  If he ever finds out you Hunt Magickers for a hobby, he’ll just think you’re insane.”

“It’s not a hobby.  Our ancestors managed to rid the world of magic once, we can do it again.”

“Must not have been completely rid if it’s still around today,” Bobby pointed out with his patented dry bluntness.

“Yeah…someone must have managed to escape.”

“Or was helped.”

“Who’d help a magic user?”

Bobby looked up from his clipboard and met Dean’s eyes.  “You know I’m not one for sentiment, boy, but don’t ever underestimate what love will make someone capable of.”

Dean dropped his eyes, feeling like that was some kind chastisement, or warning, directed at him.

“Yes, sir.”

Dean looked in the direction of Z.A. Books and wondered what Castiel would think if he knew there was magic in the world.  Dean turned his back to his surrogate uncle to hide his smile.  Cas’ excitement would probably set the whole world ablaze.


End file.
